With the development of imaging techniques, various imaging devices, such as copiers, printers, fax machines, and word processors, have been widely used. The imaging devices are provided with imaging cartridges (e.g., ink cartridges, toner cartridges) containing recording material (e.g., ink, toner) and the imaging cartridges can be conveniently replaced by the users. An imaging cartridge is usually provided with an imaging cartridge chip.
The imaging cartridge chip stores original data associated with the imaging cartridge and usage data generated daring imaging operation. The original data can include imaging cartridge manufacturer code, manufacturing date, cartridge type, and characteristic parameters, etc. The usage data can include imaged pages, remaining amount of the recording material, and number of turns made by rotary units. A rotary unit refers to a photosensitive drum, a charging roller, a developing roller, a feeding roller, or other internal components of the imaging device.
Further, some manufacturers of imaging devices try to monopolize the market and restrict the production of compatible chips or the reuse of recycled chips, and generally assign each imaging cartridge chip with its own “identity card number”, i.e., a serial number. Even for imaging cartridge chips of the same type, the serial number stored in each imaging cartridge chip is not the same.
After the imaging device provides power to the imaging cartridge chip, the imaging device reads the stored serial number inside the chip to verify the legitimacy of the imaging cartridge. If the imaging device detects that the serial number sent by the imaging cartridge chip does not comply with a preset rule, the imaging device will stop imaging operation, and directly or indirectly prompt an error message.
In addition, the imaging device also stores serial numbers of used-up imaging cartridge chip, and compares the stored serial numbers with the serial number of the newly-replaced imaging cartridge chip. If the serial number of the newly-replaced imaging cartridge chip is same as a stored serial number, the imaging device considers the imaging cartridge chip illegitimate, and the imaging device will reject the imaging cartridge.
The legitimate serial numbers are kept in the bands of the imaging device manufacturers and usually are not available to others. Thus, for chip manufacturers, obtainable legitimate serial numbers are very limited, which obviously is not beneficial to healthy market competition. In addition, for certain imaging cartridge provided by the manufacturer of the imaging device, once the recording material in the imaging cartridge is depleted, even after the imaging cartridge is refilled with new recording material and the imaging cartridge chip is reset, the refilled imaging cartridge still cannot be used with the imaging device due to the serial number issue. In this case, the user can only purchase a new imaging cartridge to continue using the imaging device, resulting in a waste of resource and not being environmental friendly.
The disclosed toner cartridges and methods are directed to solve one or more problems set forth above and other problems.